By Gregg Potts, D. Min.
Potts served as a pastor for more than 30 years in Mississippi and Georgia
JUSTICE SOUGHT
Job 36:8–23
Job was a man who needed to meditate on the goodness of God. He needed to recognize that divine greatness is mixed with goodness, sovereignty with sympathy and majesty with mercy. In this last portion of Elihu’s speech, he offered hope to Job by reminding him of the goodness of God. His suffering was not without divine purpose.
Purposeful Discipline (8–11)
In his fourth and final speech, Elihu desired for Job to listen to his appeal and repent. With a high view of God’s supremacy over all things, Elihu declared that God ordered one’s circumstances and governed the events of life. At the same time God does not despise people. He does not abuse His power but uses it for the highest good of His people.
Elihu argued that “if people are bound with chains and trapped by the cords of affliction, God tells them what they have done and how arrogantly they have transgressed” (vv. 8–9) so they can repent. In other words, God uses our trials to purify us. God uses suffering in our lives to reveal our sin, warn us of the consequences of our sin and to instruct us to repent while there is time.
God uses trials to capture our attention. Never are people more open to divine constructive criticism than when their hearts are melted in the furnace of affliction. In the fire of adversity, two responses are possible. A person may have a teachable spirit and be ready to repent and obey God. “If they listen and serve Him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in happiness” (v. 11). God will reward their obedience and bless them.
The topic of human suffering is a very sensitive and complex subject. It must be stated that not every instance of human suffering is the direct result of a particular sin. Job 1–2 reveal none of Job’s suffering was due to a specific sin he had committed, even though Job’s friends were convinced to the contrary. Job suffered because of his righteousness, not because of his sin.
Judgment Coming (12–16)
The second response while in the fire of adversity is for a person not to listen to God’s warning and perish under divine judgment. People who refuse to listen to God, ignore His instruction and continue arrogantly to sin against God will die without the knowledge that comes from God’s instruction.
Some people are godless in heart. They become so hardhearted and angry at God that they will not cry out to Him for help because their stubborn hearts refuse to repent. Their lives are cut short because of their godless hearts.
God rescues the afflicted out of their affliction when they learn the lesson God wants to teach them. God uses their suffering to discipline them, prune and purify them and bring repentance. Elihu applied this truth directly to Job. He offered an end to his suffering if he would only recognize that God was luring him to repent.
Elihu believed in the retribution principle which teaches God blesses the righteous and punishes the wicked. Elihu, like Job’s three friends, believed that Job’s suffering was the result of his sin. Elihu was stating that if Job would repent the tables would be turned and he would once again enjoy the blessings of life.
Justice Seen (17–23)
Elihu believed that God always gives people what they deserve; therefore, Job had no one to blame for his suffering but himself. This judgment, the result of God’s justice, had taken hold of Job and he could not escape. Neither wealth nor physical exertion could save him from God’s judgment.
Job should not desire death to avoid what God wanted to teach him in his suffering. Rather, he should learn the lessons and not hurry through this difficult time. Elihu urged Job not to turn to iniquity and seek to tell God what to do. Job should listen to God and learn from Him, not try to instruct Him.
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